Junior and Cyberspace Smut : Bill attacking Internet pornography is poorly written

U.S. Sen. James J. Exon (D-Neb.) believes children must be protected from obscene materials on what he called the “red-light districts” of the computer Internet. Of course he’s right. But rather than leave the protecting to parents, who can best judge Junior’s user profile, the 16-year veteran of Congress is calling for an unenforceable, and probably unconstitutional, reduction in computing privileges for all.

Exon’s proposed Communications Decency Act of 1995 would prohibit individuals from creating and distributing “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent” materials. However, the sweeping measure does not distinguish between the person who transmits hard-core pornography and one who merely sends off-color e-mail. Under Exon’s bill, both culprits could serve jail time.

That flaw is one of many that should have been addressed in congressional hearings. Instead, Exon and the bill’s co-author, Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), elected to bypass hearings and send the legislation directly to the Senate Commerce Committee, which cleared it last week.

Should it pass, the proposed act will saddle the Federal Communications Commission with the unenviable responsibility of coming up with a scheme that curbs obscenity while preserving free-speech and privacy rights. The FCC has had a hellishly difficult time defining what constitutes indecency in radio and television broadcasts. That task certainly won’t be any easier on the net. The Internet is a vast system of 30 million computers and 50,000 communications networks in which individuals can disguise their identities. That makes it difficult to police, and that is one reason pornographers find it an attractive way to distribute their wares.

Parents, however, do have defenses. There are commercial computer networks--including Prodigy, America Online and CompuServe--that can block access to so-called netsmut. And technology is being developed to allow individual households to do the same.

The First Amendment does not stop at the frontier of cyberspace. Congress should reject Exon’s well-intentioned but misguided measure.